Ready Room Interview: Dick Deal

Dick Deal, former publisher of Swimming World Magazine and current chairman of the board of Sports Publications International, goes into the Ready Room for an interview with host Brent Rutemiller.
Deal bought Swimming World Magazine in 1977 from Al Schoenfeld, when information came through regular mail or a telephone call from a meet's director. Deal also talks about the process of getting the information into a monthly magazine 30 years ago.
In 1994, Deal was publisher when Swimming World published the secret Stasi files, which proved the East German swimmers were being doped at the height of their success. Deal describes his mixed feelings over publishing Phil Whitten's report, saying he was happy the information was public, but sad that there were athletes who were cheated out of Olympic gold medals.
Deal and host Brent Rutemiller talk about the new frontier Swimming World and many print publications face today with the Internet, multimedia and bloggers. Deal talks about the role of media today and what could happen if swimming was not represented by an independent organization.